US Navy Rescues Two Women Off the Coast of Japan After Being Stranded for Months
I am glad these two women are okay, but here is a power tip for anyone thinking of going on a very long trip on a sailboat, learn how to sail it and bring a personal locator beacon:
The Navy has rescued two women lost in the Pacific for months after their small boat’s engine failed and they were blown off course during a voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti.
The Sasebo, Japan-based amphibious ship USS Ashland rescued Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, both of Honolulu, along with their dogs Zeus and Valentine after their adrift sailboat was spotted Wednesday about 900 miles southeast of Japan.
“Thank god we’ve been rescued,” was Appel’s first thought when she saw the American sailors approaching her stricken craft in a small boat launched from the Ashland Thursday morning.
“They saved our lives,” she said, according to a Navy statement about the rescue. “The pride and smiles we had when we saw [the Navy] on the horizon was pure relief.” [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
Via a reader tip:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41816709
I always thought this story did not make sense. The fact they had a locator beacon and did not use it shows this story is a fraud.
“and had endured a tiger shark attack.”
Interestingly, a 50 foot saleboat can endure a tiger shark attack for a very, very long time.
Also, a failed motor is not a terrible handicap on a “sail”boat… and “damaged rigging” can be rerigged.
These two dykes were up to something.
Did anybody else notice the odd discoloration above the waterline on the side of the boat?
Ever seen that before? No? Curious?
It looks like scum…Think I’ve seen it on boats that have been sitting (not moving) in the water a long while.
As a teenager, I read Robin Lee Graham’s “Dove,” about a young man who sailed solo around the world. He started at age 16, in 1965, made it back to Los Angeles at age 21.
Anyways, somewhere in the Indian Ocean, he was caught up in a sudden storm. He was dismasted, and had to rig a square sail out of his blanket to cover the ~2300 miles to reach a port. He ended up only 4 days late on his arrival.
That looks like algae along the side of their ship, which tells me they just bobbed along. Not sure what was going on with their sails. The jib might have jammed, or their mast might have a crimp that prevented the main sail from being raised, but that’s nothing too difficult to figure out and fix. A sloop like that is also likely to have a spinnaker, and that is rigged separately. It’s designed to go up fast, as it is used in racing to get more speed while going downwind. For all three sails to fail makes me go “hmm…”
They said they didn’t feel like they were in any real trouble, as they had plenty of food and water. But for me, after no more than a week without being able to make way under my own sail, I would have lit off the beacon and waited for a lift.
There is being self-sufficient, and there is being a damned stubborn fool. Know the difference.
They also had two large dogs on board. I have to wonder how they did that? Did they throw the dogs overboard when it was time to pee and poo? And….we’re talking months here. Really strange all around.
And shouldn’t they have scurvy by this point?
The pattern of discoloration is what one could expect if under tow for a long time/distance.
There are other explanations… but this catches my attention.
Usually, my caught attention is worth further consideration.
Well, Vitamin C is available in tablet form, so no need to carry lemons or limes any more.
As for dog pee and poo, that can be washed out through the scuppers. A bucket of sea water, a hearty toss, and all of that is washed overboard to become crab chow. As a human, you just hang your butt over the side and let loose. Guys have it a little easier, but that’s just the way things are. The ocean is quite used to it by now…
It’s a strange story though. Tiger sharks are mostly reef predators. Tigers striking at a boat hull that far out to sea isn’t any shark attack story I’ve ever heard. Bites out of surfboards and boogie boards, arms bitten off (Bethany Hamilton), chunks taken out of legs, those are well documented tiger shark attacks.
Their Storm Story also doesn’t hold water. NOAA has plenty of satellites monitoring the Pacific, storms don’t blow up out of nowhere and vanish like a serial killer. A quick squall might spin up and cause some damage, but the photo of the ship shows the jib furled around the roller, and the main sail is bunched up and lashed to the boom. I can’t see the sail channel on the mast, but the mast itself looks fine. No reason to not be able to raise the main.
I was in the Navy for 20, and served on 3 ships. I took sailing lessons in San Diego, did plenty of “beer races” with friends at Pearl Harbor, and surfed nearly daily at White Plains Beach, Barber’s Point. None of this is adding up to me.
No idea why they would fake something like this, and the algae on the side of the boat does show that they were just bobbing along for several months. Had they been moving, most of the growth would be washed away. Very odd tale indeed.
Starting to look like a Balloon Boy hoax of sorts.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/11/01/hawaii-womens-tale-survival-at-sea-unraveling-as-more-evidence-disputes-claims.html
Can’t be bothered with finding a non-Fox link, deal with it. 😛
Just thinking further….isn’t the gunk on the boat kind of high up now?
Like the boat was sitting lower in the water (carrying more weight maybe?) when it got there.
Maybe not though…I guess the waves go high enough to knock it off up to there.
Please disregard, I’m not so sharp today.